English → Latin
“feed” in Latin
pāscōto feed, nourish, maintain, support; to pasture, drive to pasture, tend, attend; to feed, supply, cultivate, let grownūtriōto suckle, breastfeed, nurse; to feedalōto feed, to nourish, to nurture; to cultivate, to raise, to rear, etc. (as a child, an animal, etc.); to cause (a thing)sustentōto uphold, support, prop or sustain, maintain; to maintain or preserve by food, money, or other means; to keep in check,augeōto increase, augment, enlarge, spread, expand; to lengthen; to raise, strengthenfoveōto warm, keep warm; to nurture, cherish, foster; to foment, bathenūtrīcōto suckle, nourish, rear; to sustain, supportdēpāscōto graze or pasture (livestock); to feed on, consume, devour, tear
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
feed
cibum praebere alicui (general term for giving him food): cibo juvare aliquem (to refresh him with food): cibare aliquem (especially poultry and children; the word is post-Augustan): pabulum dare alicui (especially to larger animals, as oxen, etc.): pascere (especially to feed sheep, goats, swine; both in the sense of driving them to pasture and watching them there, and also of keeping so many; also of feeding persons [olusculis nos pascere, Cic.], but with reference to feeding them like cattle; and ofa district feeding so many, = supplying them with provisions; also of becoming the food of, against one’s will; e.g., aliquis or aliquid pascet corvos, tineas, etc.). To feed with one’s own hand, cibare manu sua (Suet., Tib., 72): to feed well, largo pastu sustentare: birds feed their unfledged young, aves infirmis fetibus cibos ore suo collatos partiuntur (Quint. 2, 6, 7): to feed a child, infanti cibum in os ingerere (Cic., De Or., 2, 39, 162).
IMPROPR., nutrire (e.g., amorem, Ov.; ignes foliis etc., Ov.): alere (e.g., a war, a contest, love, rage, etc.): sustentare (to support; e.g., a war, anybody’s vices, etc.): augere: alere et augere (e.g., desiderium, to increase it; opposed to exstinguere): fovere (e.g., dolores suos; alicujus spem). To feed one’s eyes with anything, oculos pascere aliqua re; fructum capere oculis ex re: dare oculis epulas (comedy).
Support, supply with provisions, etc., alere: pascere (poetical): sustentare: alere et sustentare: victum praebere alicui: nutricari (IMPROP.; omniaque [mundus] sicut membra et partes sui nutricatur et continet, Cic., N.D., 2, 34). [Vid: SUPPORT.]
Depasture (as in “to feed your meadows,” Woodward), depascere: immisso pecore depascere (Ulp.).
To feed a lake, river, etc., in lacum or flumen influere.
INTRANS., Live on, vesci aliqua re (the proper word; carne, lacte): vivere aliqua re (to live on; de aliqua re is of the means by which a livelihood is gained): ali aliqua re (e.g., lacte).
Pasture (of cattle), pasci and (poetical) pascere (Verg.): pabulari (to eat fodder).
IMPROPR., pasci aliqua re (e.g., bibliotheca alicujus, etc.; of delighting in it).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for feed?
- The usual Latin words for “feed” are pāscō, nūtriō, alō; also sustentō, augeō, foveō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.